Would you ever buy a tow pig with 450k miles?

Random facebook marketplace looking

Low and behold a 8.1l suburban 2500 shows up for less than 3k has a trans about 40k ago but has 459k miles no rust with some dents and scratches. Owner says no smoke/weird noises etc. That's way more miles than almost every other car I have owned combined.

No. 

At that kind of mileage E36 M3 that never breaks or goes wrong starts to vreak and go wrong. 

If it works well.....than its well tested and was probably very maintained

"

About 6k..the guy before me bought it at 160k and in 3 or 4 years(cant remember how long exactly) brought it up to 452xxx"

"Not sure, I believe everything is original besides the obvious things like water pump, spark plugs ect. It was used as an estimate vehicle for imperial roofing in charlotte. But when I first got the truck last year the hour meter on the engine read 3246 hours. Which isn't much. And yes a/c and cruise works great(All a/c components have been replaced by previous owner)"

So at 3k hours maybe that's a newer motor?

Maybe if it was a rust free Toyota truck. Otherwise, no.

Even less so if you're going to tow pig it. It may have all those miles living a leisurely life of not towing. But now you're adding a lot of additional stresses to the vehicle, which could cause things to go wrong that didn't go wrong before.

Rule #1 for a tow pig is to get something reliable. Because having your tow rig break down in 100x worse than having your racecar break down....and far more inconvenient.

irish44j said:

Maybe if it was a rust free Toyota truck. Otherwise, no.

 

there are very few vehicles one would trust at 400k+  Toyota is 95% of them like my 99 LC with 422k, but i think this Yukon doesnt seem too bad especially since its still a GM product with cheap parts, i mean a junkyard 8.1 is somewhat hard to find but nothing really screams run away to me about this one.

I’d buy it. It’s a gmt400 - it’s either had stuff replaced, or it hasn’t needed it. The electrical, gauge cluster, power windows, etc. would likely cause you more grief than anything mechanical. 

Parts don’t get much cheaper, or much easier to find at every auto parts store, than a gmt400. 

I would buy that if it's the best condition thing that fits your needs for the price. I wouldn't be too worried about mechanicals other than making sure engine has good oil pressure and acceptable blowby. If it passes that it would be the same as buying a 100k or 200k version of the same truck, basically. 

I mean I want a 4x4 3/4ton tow pig to use as a tow pig. I would love to have a suburban 2500 with the 8.1 but most of them with the 200k ish normal mark are like 7-8k and this one is 3? That's cheaper than I can even find a v10 excursion or 6.0 burban for with 200k or so. I want to spend 5k or less on the towpig itself

I’d not be scared of that, don’t believe that Parts are cheap though....the 8.1 parts are very specific and not everything is available from rock auto. 

Well, you can buy one with 150k miles twice as much and end up having the same exact issues. If its been maintained and healthy go for it. How much would a crate 8.1 cost these days?

When I google crate motors they seem way expensive but on car-part I see used ones with about 80k on em for about 2500

Jaynen said:

I mean I want a 4x4 3/4ton tow pig to use as a tow pig. I would love to have a suburban 2500 with the 8.1 but most of them with the 200k ish normal mark are like 7-8k and this one is 3? That's cheaper than I can even find a v10 excursion or 6.0 burban for with 200k or so. I want to spend 5k or less on the towpig itself

curious - what are you towing?

20ft enclosed trailer with a miata and a 6-8klb 30ftish travel trailer likely

If it's made it that fan it's probably been taken care of, right? 

I don't know... I think it depends on your situation and risk acceptance level.  How much time or money do you have to invest in case something goes wrong?

I bought an E-350 diesel van with by most accounts a rock-solid 7.3 IDI engine. But the previous owner did some stupid crap to the electrics which have drained the batteries to zero and now I have to replace them. Hasn't moved in months as I have had trouble making time to fix it.  

Driving 452k miles in 3246 hours is an average speed of 139mph. That seems...unlikely... At least for a truck that drove around doing roofing estimates. I'd say it's either had the engine replaced, the ECM replaced or the hour meter was somehow reset.

Also, because I'm a nerd: if we're generous and assume it's averaged 10mpg over it's life that's 45,900 gallons of fuel burned. $3/gal means $137,700 of gas has passed through that thing, and that doesn't even begin to consider other consumables and maintenance!

Ian F said

I bought an E-350 diesel van with by most accounts a rock-solid 7.3 IDI engine. But the previous owner did some stupid crap to the electrics which have drained the batteries to zero and now I have to replace them.

One thing I learned working at a GMC dealer years ago is that many conversion vans left Elkhart Indiana with that feature installed at the upfitter. 

Jaynen said:

When I google crate motors they seem way expensive but on car-part I see used ones with about 80k on em for about 2500

80-120k is where most of them locked up from oil starvation; they seep from the oil cooler lines enough to accomplish that. Inspect those on any 8.1; they are an odd crimped design that fails. I bought one locked up and threw a junkyard motor in it, replacing all the little stuff that needs replaced “while you’re in there” cost another 2200. 

STM317 said:

Driving 452k miles in 3246 hours is an average speed of 139mph. That seems...unlikely... At least for a truck that drove around doing roofing estimates. I'd say it's either had the engine replaced, the ECM replaced or the hour meter was somehow reset.

Also, because I'm a nerd: if we're generous and assume it's averaged 10mpg over it's life that's 45,900 gallons of fuel burned. $3/gal means $137,700 of gas has passed through that thing, and that doesn't even begin to consider other consumables and maintenance!

The owner said he has put 6k on it in the last year, the previous owner was the roofing estimate place in charlotte (weird car to use for that?) took it from 125k to over 450k in 3-4 years. I agree I think the engine was likely rebuilt/replaced it did get a new trans 40k ago

Ian F said:

I don't know... I think it depends on your situation and risk acceptance level.  How much time or money do you have to invest in case something goes wrong?

I bought an E-350 diesel van with by most accounts a rock-solid 7.3 IDI engine. But the previous owner did some stupid crap to the electrics which have drained the batteries to zero and now I have to replace them. Hasn't moved in months as I have had trouble making time to fix it.  

It's an extra vehicle so would not need to be working all the time, money wise I could afford it but the wife faction hit on her feeling like it was a money pit might be a bit of a pain. But as mentioned I am unsure if its really that much less reliable than one with 200kish miles they had to do something right to get it to 450

While the 8.1L was last used in GM trucks in 2006/07, it was used in medium duty trucks, RVs and marine to around 2013, so there are engines out there. They are known to go 300-400K miles pretty easily. I wouldn't be afraid of that one. Raylar has parts for them.

Oil cooler lines tend to leak, but aren't too bad to change, 4x4 ones require you to lower the front diff some for line clearance, did them on mine. Most stuff like water pumps and such are easy to change and parts availability is been good for mine (2003).

Just to show that STM317 isn't the only nerd watching this, the subject vehicle is actually a GMT800.

Sure. 

I have 560K on my daily driver tiw pig, and I still trust it for 1000 miles per week. 

But I wouldn’t give him $3K for it. 

Hes not gonna have any buyers. You’ve got negotiating room. 

Flash 20 $100 bills in front of him. Walk away if he won’t take it. 

I would buy it for $2,000. maybe $2,250 if it was in really good shape. Long shot but are there any service records available for it? either way the front end has been rebuilt at least 3x in that time. other than that, 4l80e is bullet proof, i believe those are a full floating rear end, which are also bullet proof.